gas prices. >> as a country, we have a right to be proud of everything we've accomplished. more jobs. more people insured. a growing economy. shinging deficits. bustling industry. booming energy. pick any metrics you want and america's resurgence is real. i've never been persuaded by this argument that if it weren't for the executive actions they would would have been more productive. there's no evidence of that. sony's a corporation. it suffered significant damage. yes, i think they made a mistake. i'm being absolutely sincere when i say, i want to work with this new congress to get things done. there is very little impact, nominal impact, on u.s. gas prices, what the average

american consumer cares about by having this pipeline come through. like the rest of america, black america in the aggregate is better than when i came in office. and we have more work to do on that front. >> nbc's kelly o'donnell is at the white house. it's great to see you. the president definitely feels like he has one foot out the door today. interestingly, only called on female reporters here. >> reporter: that was notable. the trend was quickly evident. he carried it through to the end, even taking one more question from april ryan, who persisted at the end. that's interesting for those of us who like the art and the science of a presidential press conference. but this was a -- an hour long exchange filled with really important headlines, from the sony case where the president said he acknowledged the difficult position a publicly-held corporation was in with all of the damage that's been done there. but believing they acted in error. they made a mistake. at the same time the president

didn't take up the opportunity to say, he would screen the film that has been at the source of all of this international intrigue here at the white house. so, he was critical of sony. acknowledged seas acknowledged sony difficult position but trying to lay a marker on what private corporations and other institutions will need to do when it comes to the threat, the very real threat of cyber terrorism. the president was dripping with derision about north korea, being so upset about a movie that is a comedy. he also then moved on to the topic of cuba, where he was questioned about that. notable that he said, he expects to visit cuba in his lifetime but has no plans to go there at this time. as president and no plans imminent to have raul castro visit the united states or the white house. that's interesting because, obviously, the cuba change will play out big in 2015 with the republican congress needing to weigh in on things like lifting the embargo, which is in law,

and funding some of the operations in cuba, like a new embassy or other ways to try to open those gates. so, this was a substantive news conference. it had some humor. it had some funny lines and some unexpected moments. it all the all-female questioners but there was real substance here, too. it's the kind of thing that even in a year-end news conference, we didn't hear anything about isis or the ongoing concerns about will there need to be a different complement of u.s. troops on the ground in iraq to fight the -- that particular terror threat. so, still so many other topics to get to, but the ones most recent, most on the news were certainly part of this back and forth today. the president was newsy. he had some humor. and clearly is ready to go on vacation. krystal? >> absolutely. kelly o'donnell at the white house, thank you so much. let's bring in dana milbank, political columnist at "the washington post." thanks for being with us. >> hi, krystal. >> we should have gotten a women for this segment. you'll have to do. >> sorry. you got somebody with a woman's name. how about that? >> i guess that will work.

i'm not in a position to make fun of names. as kelly was pointing out, what the president said about sony hack. saying they made a mistake and even contrasting them with boston. what did you make of the president's comments there? >> i was glad de it. he was forceful on that. certainly what i had been wondering about, having made plans to see this film as a matter of protest against north korea. and that's how a lot of americans will be. this seemed to be a revived president knocked doi down by the midterm elections. he had the ease of a man headed to hawaii but he also seemed to be enjoying himself in i a way i haven't seen. looks like eyes ice spoiling for a fight with republicans next year, relishing and looking forward to it. he seemed to be not giving in at

all on things like keystone, which, you know, after the cuba announcement, it seems like maybe there's going to be some strong presidential leadership here. >> dana, i think that's totally right. the moment that jumped out at me from the early part of the presser is when the president said, interesting stuff happens in the fourth quarter, which of course in sports analogy is perfect for where he is but suggests as opposed to lame duck, when it's just like the end of your presidency fizzle out. no, in the quoufourth quarter, is winning time. in terms of executive actions around immigration, cuba and climate, he's taking this fourth quarter as a chance to really impact the game. >> right. he's going to throw some long passes and see what he connects. that's exactly what he should be doing now. and i think the line was spot on, as if he hadn't been issuing executive orders, john boehner and mitch mcconnell will be completely compliance in addressing everything on the presidential's agenda. that's nonsense.

the well had been poisoned long before immigration executive orders came along. so, it is -- i mean, he has no choice but to get his back up and put up a real fight. that's how you'll get to compromise with these guys. it's certainly not go to be achieved by backing down. >> he seemed punchy. don't know what they put in his milk in the white house. if you look back to 2007, 2008 when barack obama got on the scene for president. that he was a blank slate. you had centrist and mod riss, republicans said he might reach across the aisle. he was unknown. six years into his presidency, how would you assess him on that scale? how would you characterize him ideological and governmentally? >> well, he's been all over the lot. and i think he disappointed a lot of the progressive base who

saw him as an empty vessel and filled him with those ideas. now you're seeing a little elizabeth warren effect here. i think you're seeing a guy -- like you heard him on keystone and you heard him taking it to the republican leadership in congress. i think part of the lesson here is where the energy is in his party. he doesn't have to worry about the moderates in the -- the moderate democrats in the senate now. they're all but gone. you definitely see at least in the fourth quarter he's going to run to the left. >> you know, as kelly o'donnell was saying, it was a newsy press conference but very relaxed. he was laughing. he was making jokes. very much one foot out the door, ready to go on vacation. a different tone than we've seen in a number of these other press conferences. also, dana, in the past few weeks you see a change in how he's handle the situations. it was written in the "new york times" yesterday and described well. gone are the cautious political

calculations. mr. obama is pushing forward aggressively on his promised agenda and ignoring his most ar dent critics. if i were imagining a cartoon being drawn up on this, i would see president obama basically giving the middle finger to republicans. >> oh. >> what do you think the turning point was for him? >> i don't think we could show that cartoon on the air. it's probably some rude gesture, abby. yeah, i think that's the tone he's taken. freedom's just never word for nothing left to lose. he's lost the senate. he lost the house. now he can be himself and put up a fight here. so, i think you saw that feistiness in his language. and you certainly saw it in the cuba announcement. and i think he's going to -- he's saying to the republican congress, bring it on, he's ready for this fight. and if he takes that fight to them, he's going to have a unified progressive democratic party behind him. >> the always feisty dana milbank, thanks. >> but not a woman. sorry. >> and straight ahead, another

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i'm absolutely sincere when i say i want to work with this new congress, to get things done, to make those investments. to make sure the government is working better and smarter. we're going to disagree on some things, but there are going to be areas of agreement. and we've got to be able to make that happen.

and that's going to involve compromise every once in a while. we saw during in lame duck period, perhaps that spirit of compromise may be coming to the fore. >> the first family heads to hawaii for the holiday. when he gets back, president obama will be greeted by a completely republican-controlled congress. that is not exactly paradise. for that, let's bring in senior editor at the new republic. great to have on you the show, especially on a friday. >> thanks for having me on. >> the president's recently made some pretty big moves. in order to keep those moves alive, he's got to get republicans on his side. we've already gotten a taste of their response recently. marco rubio called him the worst negotiator since jimmy carter. how is this going to go when he gets back from his trip. >> a lot of the stuff he does on his own, he doesn't have to do much to defend. if republicans use their control of congress to try to pass spending bills or other must pass bills that chip away at those things, he can credibly threat ton veto those. we know the republicans are

ahead of 2016. they to want avoid initiating crisis like they did for the first two years of their house majority. so, i think the thins he's done, cuba, immigration, climate change, those are basically secure and will be secure unless a republican wins the white house in 2016. the question is whether republicans are going to be willing or able or want to put those disagreements aside and, you know, put, you know, small points on the board. make some small ball deals with obama in the way he suggested during the press conference, that he didn't buy just because he's done all those things that republicans can't work with him to do other things that he wants to do. >> right. you mentioned republican obstruction, let's say, to president obama. that brings to mind obama care. very interesting. this this press conference i think we heard president mention obamacare once. no questions on the topic. it used to be if the president sneezed you would have 15 questions about obamacare. there was nothing. does that mean this is settled? you're an expert on this.

what does this mean for obamacare moving into 2015? >> there's a wild card here. so, if there were no wild card, i would say the obamacare question would kind of go silent for the next two years. republicans would still politic on it, obviously, but the idea they would pick a big fight or a spending bill or debt limit bill to chip away or roll back obamacare, i think those days are behind us. there's a supreme court case that will be heard and decided in the coming year, which if the court's conservatives rule together with the challengers, it will basically wipe out obamacare subsidies and mostly the individual mandate in about three dozen states. the supreme court would be foising the kind of crisis republicans and democrats want to avoid on congress in saying, here's the mess we made and it's on you to clean it up. the states might do some stuff to clean it up. but i think that if that happens there will be real resistance by republicans to fix the decision

the supreme court made and republicans will be working -- democrats will be trying to prevent republicans from reopening the books and destroying the law and pushing hard to get republicans to say, we're not going to let the supreme court take health care away from 6 million people. you'll see interest things happen from there. a lot of the people who lose their insurance will be from states like ohio and pennsylvania, where republican senators are going to face tough re-election prospects. that would be the wild card. that would really scramble things. other than that, i think obamacare is on a glide path right now. >> that's good to hear. another obvious point of contention between the president and republicans is on the keystone pipeline. he made interesting comments here, especially to the last question. would keystone came up. the president has previously said, we should let the process play out. here he was fairly critical of the keystone pipeline being bad for the environment and not really doing much in terms of jobs. i expect that will be a continued point of debate coming up in this upcoming congress.

>> it's probably going to be among the first votes the senate takes when mitch mcconnell becomes majority leader. mitch mcconnell is facing all kinds of competing tensions because he's got his vulnerable members, his conservatives, some of whom want to be president and this narrow window at the beginning because he might only be a two-year majority leader where he wants to put some points on the board for himself so he can secure a legacy. and keystone is one of these issues where there's a chance that he can sort of outmuscle obama. if he can wrangle up extra democratic votes and get a veto-proof majority for keystone, he can force obama's hand on this one. i think that's what he's hoping to do. if not, at least to use it as a political wedge because it's the kind of issue that's really easy to focus group and it polls well. but obama seems geared up to go toe to toe with mcconnell on this. if he thinks he can sustain that veto, he'll do it. and so we'll get to watch that fight play out in the next, you

know, three weeks or so i think. >> that's absolutely right. and i think that he did have a pugilistic tone at moments, but at other times he seemed to respect this idea that that isn't always going to get things done in the legislative process. one of the lines that jumped out at me is when he was talking about working with the next congress, and he talked about working with the previous congress, attempting to on the immigration bill, but he gave them the space to act. and a lot of people say that this president is not forceful enough in pushing his ideas, but he understands that whichever party the president comes from, the more the president pushes what he wants and attaches himself to a given piece of legislation, an idea, the more the other party will push against that idea. and he understands that he can't just sort of ram things down people's throats and then get that. the more hands off he is, the more of a chance he might have to actually have that get through. >> i think he has come to learn that the president, particularly his own presidency, is a polarizing institution, right?

and so his -- the idea that he had earlier in his administration, that just by winning, you create momentum for further victories. doesn't really resemble how politics actually operate in the united states. but with respect to the issues that he's already acted on and tried to get congress to go along with him and has failed to, immigration, climate, now maybe cuba, i think the next few years is going to be just about sort of holding those executive actions in place and not letting republicans force his hand to roll them back. and then letting the 2016 election kind of determine the ultimate fate of those things. if a democrat wins, they can -- that democrat can credibly go to congress and say, here are some deeply rooted things. i will keep doing them if you work with me on a bill to codify them. if you want to put it on our immigration policy or energy pole policy, maybe get some conservative goodies thrown in by making these things permanent, then i'll work with you. if not, we're just going to keep

pushing our executive authority in these areas. in a way, he's sort of teeing up an agenda for hillary clinton and one she's suggested she's going to run on. so, if she were to win, that's when the issue of -- all these issues would be thrown sort of back into the legislative arena. >> you mentioned hillary clinton and the future, which begs the question around the direction that this country is going. nbc/wall street journal did a poll. the results came out yesterday. there was a number that stuck out to me. it was 71%. 71% to the next president should take a different approach than president obama. obviously, he seems like he's in a great mood. he was optimistic today. how do you govern for the next two years when it's clear that americans want to go in a completely different direction? >> well, i think mainly what you do is you just hope that the recent economic news continues over the next two years because those numbers will change if the kinds of, you know, jobs

numbers, growth numbers we've been seeing over the last four, five, six months continue for the next year or two. i think beyond that, his sort of -- the lack of constraints he faces now make him a more likeable political figure. so, that could help him on the margin, too, to change those numbers. and then for his successor or for his potential successor, there's going to be no running away from things like obamacare, his immigration action, his action on carbon pollution. but what hillary clinton or whoever it is can do is sort of say,ly have a different approach to these issues that will make them more palatable to republicans, that will end the ranker. so, the difference between the eventual democratic nominee and obama will be on these sort of superficial approaches to politics and not on the actual substance. >> i think that's absolutely right. if we don't see you, happy holidays. >> thank you. you too. right after the break, republicans aren't the only ones president obama had a message

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comcast business. built for business. we cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censureship here in the united states. or news reports they don't like. >> and that was president obama this afternoon with some strong comments about sony's decision to cancel the release of the interview. that's a satirical seth rogen film about assassinating the leader of north korea. it's grabbed a lot of headlines and was the first topic the

president was asked about today. the news conference came hours after the fbi officially declared north korea was behind those hacked e-mails. that's where we start as we look at the global issues covered today. the editor of foreign affairs, also has a new e-book called "the best of 2014." you should download it. gideon, thanks for being here. the big issue today, north korea and sony. we're seeing another country, north korea, using cyber and the internet as a geopolitical weapon now. how does that change our approach to foreign policy now and national security. >> well, it does and it doesn't. the fact that it's being cyber, that it's cyber terrorism, is a new thing and in some ways a precursor of what we can expect down the road. the general pattern of how you should respond is not new. the whole point of terrorism is to terrorize.

it's not just to do damage but to get you to do things in response to that that you wouldn't otherwise do. so, you know, the great philosopher on this is taylor swift because -- >> i was not expecting you to go there. >> the basic response of society should be to shake it off, right? haters are going to hate. and the challenge is -- the challenge is how the government can do what it can to protect us and respond and how corporations can take proper security on their cyber front. but the idea you're going to basically let north korean actions and threats dictate what is shown in american theaters is silly. >> i completely agree with that. there was one thing that struck me. the president obviously very forceful saying, sony made a mistake. really calling them out. saying they wish -- he wished that sony had called him before they made this decision. if he felt so strongly about it, couldn't he have reached out to them and had some impact on this decision-making sflosz. >> it's always difficult. have you to feel a little bit for sony. they made a bunch of choices

along the way. they're not feeling regretful about a lot of those. if they could go back, they probably wouldn't have green lighted the movie in the first place. and private companies have a whole lot of obligations. they're making profits. they have obligations to their stakeholders. so, i don't fault sony for not talking to the president, but they sl-v behaved in kind of a cowardly way. >> shouldn't he have reached out to them? >> we don't want the president getting too involved with private companies. i think chastising is a good idea but consultation, not so much. >> criticizing them, fine. consulting with them in advance, over the line. got it. >> but i think there is a misunderstanding of the full dynamics here that when we say sony made a mistake, we are misunderstanding that it was a group called nato, the national american theater owners who said, we're not showing this picture. they made the decision for sony, right? so, sony suddenly has no sdri t distributor. when they say, we're going to pull, it it's already been pulled for them. perhaps nato made a mistake.

what you said about sony, if they made a mistake, it was earlier in green lighting this picture. when we talk about first amendment -- the first amendment of this country, that doesn't mean anybody can say anything any time. you cannot yell fire in a crowded theater. there are limits to that. do you think there's a similar sort of principle invoked, the fire in a crowded theater principle, when we make a film, where we send americans to a foreign country to kill with the intention, the stated intention, of killing that country's leader and then that actually happens in that film. >> seth's movies can be an incitement, but not the kind that -- they're an incitement of violence against seth -- >> i mean, come on, when the "south park" guys made kim jong-un look like an idiot. but when he died --

>> we're learn being this kind of thing. look, it's it's a very tough issue. it's hard to -- almost every single media outlet is very scared and refuses to post pictures of mohamed for exactly the same reason sony pulled the picture. there is a lot of self-censureship that goes on. this is easy because it's a new thing and everyone believes north korea is a figure of fun. a the question of what you as a media outlet want to do you won't illustrate this with clips from the movie for good reasons, and even if they were available, your corporate sponsors may not be interested in doing that. it's a dicey issue. it's an american policy issue not just a sony issue. this is an act of terrorism in a cyber way, threats of terrorism against an american corporation.

>> is this an american corporation? should that make the difference? >> yeah, we have to protect our people. >> this is not an american corporation. >> it's a japanese corporation, based in america. the u.s. has to respond in some way. >> clearly, they do. as you're saying, this is very much unchartered territory. >> here as in ukraine, nato should be more aggressive. >> what are the options? because the president says they are planning a proportional response which could be code for we have no idea. >> the problem is north korea is so backward and so poor and so weak that they don't really have any great things to bomb or -- >> could we slap sanctions -- i was thinking about it. slap sanctions on cyberspace, we could put north korea back on the state sponsor terror list, maybe freeze north korea business accounts. are any of these options? >> they are already pretty

isolated. they don't let their own people watch the internet in the first place because they -- they are afraid of letting information in. what we really could do best is actually what we did with cuba, embrace north korea, flood it with information and let their people actually see what they're missing. >> that's interesting. >> in the long run, that would be the best way to transform the regime. >> thank you very much for your taylor swift rendition. >> just shake it off. >> we're going to shake off this segment right now. really like the imitation. we'll download that e-book. coming up next, the president talks about the castro brothers.

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is that if you had done the same thing for 50 years and nothing's changed, you should try something different if you want a different outcome. and this gives us an opportunity for a different outcome. >> this afternoon president obama answered critics of his decision to reengage with cuba, a change unlike any of us have witnessed in our lifetime. as we have seen in the past couple of days, it's not sitting well with all cuban/americans, mainly those whose families have been directly affected by human rights abuses carried out by the castro brothers. let's bring in manuel franzia from "the washington post" and msnbc's own alex sites. if cuba is more open, that will bring more freedom and greater self-determination to the people of cuba. he didn't say this but i kind of heard him sort of almost wanting to say, perhaps will bring apart

a revolution. he's not actively wishing for that but that's what we to want have in cuba. do you think openness will ultimately lead to overturning communism in cuba? >> look, i think when the president says to not expect overnight changes, it's got to be the understatement of the year. he has to understand and i'm sure that he does, that this is a regime that has total control in their country and that anybody who's very excited about the news that came out yesterday, which was truly historic, should temper that excitement with the knowledge that things move slowly in cuba and this is an entrenched government. >> we saw you in the briefing room. you look sharp, as always. to that point of things moving slowly in cuba, was this a mistake to announce everything at once? why not a step by step process? start with one thing and they be reward cuba for good behavior and go from there.

why not go about it that way? >> i think only time will tell whether that was a diplomatic mistake, but i think politically it's shaping up to be a smart move. clearly that's what they're going for here. they want to make a big splash about it. they want to package it as another of these major executive actions the president is taking a long with immigration, his recent deal with china on climate change. and he wants to look like he's doing stuff. he's active despite the setback in the 2014 election and despite being in the final two years of his presidency. >> you know, picking up on that, manuel, alex raises a good point, there has been a market shift in the way in which the president has governed in the last month alone. he used to be a cautious guy, looking for a grand bargain, trying to work with the other side. in the last month we've seen this cuba deal, immigration executive order, a fleury of activity. what has changed? is there something that has made it more possible for this cuba deal and others like it to be successful? >> look, the midterm elections are over now. an argument could be made prior

to the midterm election is that the president's actions would have somehow affected the fate of democrats who he was hoping would get elected to various offices. that's over now. it was a disaster for democrats. now he has freedom in the last part of his presidency to take some big steps. and we're seeing him doing that. and i think it probably undercuts some of the narrative that he's cautious -- a cautious president unwilling to take big, big steps. >> alex, blake mentioned the immigration executive action. interestingly, correct me if i'm wrong here, i don't think a single question on immigration. very little mention of immigration at all here, which to me was sort of surprising considering the backlash we've seen from republicans and what a large move that was. fairly recently. what do you make of that? >> yeah, that's right. there was no direct question on it. it did come up. he mentioned it. he basically told the new republican congress to bring it on.

he said, i'm not going to stop doing what i think will help the american people. i'm going to keep doing whatever i can do in my power. and he said he was confident that he had enough votes to prevent a veto override in congress. but i think the fact that it wasn't a big issue speaks to the fact that republicans don't have a great way to address it. they don't have a great way to roll it back. they're sort of stuck with it now. we've moved on to this next big executive action. who knows where we'll be. republicans say they fight this cuba move tooth and nail. he keeps piling these on. republicans don't have a great answer. >> alex, if the president's presidency was a novel, you would see the seeds for this moment with cuba planted way back early during the campaign, during the '08 campaign, when he said, yes, he would speak to the leaders of rogue nations. he understands and he's always understood that sort of normalizing relations with these sort of countries that are enemies gives you a greater chance to influence them rather

than not talking to them at all. >> yeah, that's exactly right. this fits with his larger foreign policy view. he took a lot of criticism for that on syria, on north korea, on russia, you know, famously hillary clinton hit the reset button and has come under huge amount of criticism for that. but this is coming full circle on that. now that he -- domestically he can't get huge things through congress. eats looking at his foreign policy agrenada and get back to those priorities he set some time ago. >> let's not forget that cuba is still on a spate sponsor for terror. they're still on the list, which obviously goes against our policy of never to negotiate with terrorists. what's going to happen with that? is that going to go off the list at some point? >> he asked secretary kerry to review that. that in washington speak sort of sounds like i asked secretary kerry to take them off of that list. it remains to be seen whether that actually will happen, but i

thought it was fascinating to hear a united states president say that he had had a long phone conversation -- or a long conversation with the president of cuba and then make a joke about how it runs in the family that he talks a long time. you couldn't have made that joke 15 years ago. >> yeah, that's such a great point. that was a fascinating moment in the press conference. looking larger picture, how does this opening of our relationship with cuba impact our relationships throughout latin america? >> well, look, the u.s. policy as it reelgts to cuba was unpopular in latin america. and we're going to see how the latin american leaders react when they all get together in panama and i think that what you'll find is that they're pleased that the united states is taking some steps to normalize relations with that country. >> it's interesting you say that it's unpopular in south america and central america, but in south florida, the

cuban/american community is largely split 50/50 on these issues. of course, older americans down there, who tend to vote in larger numbers, they're about 60% in favor of the embargo. so, the americans who are most passionate about this issue and most likely to go to the ballot box, they are largely against lifting the embargo. >> well, look, florida is an evolving place. and i think the reaction that we saw in miami this week after this big announcement should tell you a lot. nobody burned down any buildings. there was some discontentment being expressed, but there weren't huge demonstrations. i tell you, if this had happened 15 years ago, there would have been huge demonstrations. that should be an indication to you that an evolution in the way that south florida looks at the relationship with cuba. some of the more hard line folks are getting older and less

active. younger cuban/americans and also other latin americans who live in florida are much less inclined to want to fight this fight with castro and maintain a hard line with cuba. >> interesting stuff. thank you very much. still ahead, the president writes another chapter in his legacy. presidential historian alan lickman is next. >> we cannot unilaterally bring down the embargo. that's codified in libretide act. what i do think is going to happen is there's going to be a progress where congress digests it. there are bipartisan supporters of our new approach. bipartisan detractors of this new approach. people will see how the actions we take unfold. and i think there's going to be

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children and adolescents in particular may be at an increased risk of seizures, confusion or abnormal behavior. the most common side effects are mild to moderate nausea and vomiting. ask your doctor about tamiflu and attack the flu virus at its source. emma, it's simple, when you are in a place like this, the best way to capture the moment is to feel it, even if you can't see it. there are going to be some tough fights on areas where we disagree. if republicans seek to take health care away from people who just got it, they will meet stiff resistance from me. if they try to water down consumer protections that we put in place in the aftermath of the

financial crisis, i will say no. and i'm confident that i'll be ape able to uphold vetoes of those types of provisions. >> this afternoon marked president obama's 57th official news conference. lucky number 57. also today, house speaker john boehner sent an official invitation to the white house for the president to deliver his state of the union address. that will be on january 20th. each new opportunity, as the president tries to shape his legacy through a number of actions but don't, involve congress. to help put all of this in perspective, let's talk to presidential historian, alan lickman, professor at american university. thanks so much for being with us. >> sure. >> i wanted to start with a little, i guess what i'll call, the optics or symbolism, the fact that the president chose to call on only female journalists, eight different women selected to ask questions at this press conference. i thought it was an interesting moment of symbolism from a president who doesn't always really get into moments of

symbolism. is there a precedent for this sort of thing? >> hey, he has symbolism left because he's not going to get anything through the congress. and i think i think this is a p who realizes the optics are critically important and what is the core base of his democratic party? it is women voters. just as, of course, the johnson administration, when it passed the voting rights act, acknowledged african-americans all over the country and their contributions to the american legacy. >> the last question was from april ryan about the state of black america. and the president does what he usually does when he talks about race. he was able to frame it in larger than racial concerns, talking about economic things that are not racially intended by help black and brown people.

he talked about in the a historical context in terms of these are part of our legsy of slavery and jim crow and he ends on a hopeful note. america knows how to solve these sort of problems. let's listen to the president. >> i think it's been a healthy conversation that we've had. these are not new phenomenon, the fact that they are now surfacing, in part because people are able to film what had just been in the past, stories passed on around a kitchen table, allows people to make their own assessments and evaluations. and you're not going to solve the problem if it's not being talked about. >> no president can speak to the racial issues the way he has been able to. has that made a difference? >> we'll see if it makes a difference. this but in the long term it will absolutely make a

difference in terms of both opening up this conversation and in terms of practical measures including the move to put body cameras on police officers. it won't solve all the problems but it will make things better but it's what we are seeing here is president obama treading a fine line. when john f kennedy came in he had to prove he was the president of all people, not just catholics, president obama has been very careful to prove he is the president of all americans not just african-americans, thereby laying a foundation for other minority presidents whether it be more african-americans, hispanics, although women are not a numerical minority we have not had a woman president. >> the tone seemed relaxed. the first thing he said all i want for christmas is to answer all your questions. he seemed like he was in a good mood ready to go on vacation.

on the surface it seemed like happy and light hearted president but under beneath it was a newsy press conference. what do we remember most? is it the tone or the substance? >> in this case, there's no great headline except maybe for the fact that he thinks that sony was wrong in pulling the movie. but i think the tone was very important. i think this was a relaxed and confident president. doesn't have to face another election and he has done something brilliant with his executive orders, not only has he burnished his legacy but he put the republicans who just won a huge victory in a very difficult political box. they have a choice to make. they can spend all their time proving their are the party of no and trying to fight all of these initiatives, or they can spend their time on doing positive things. this is a really tough dilemma that the republicans are in.

they always wanted to pace defeats on the face of this president. but now it's tougher. >> it's funny that you raised that but the president took a more aggressive tact at this press conference and it seems like the left is having a moment. i want to get your historical expertise here. elizabeth warren, maybe running for president. you have the president in the last month had a flurry of activity that progressives would like. you is the disappearance of the mod rall blue dog democrats in the congress. am i right or given your expertise is this just something that happens in waves or is this something real happening here? >> i think there is something very real happening here. historically you cannot win by alienating your base. look, in 1964, lyndon johnson

won the vote but he was driven out of office and the republicans came back in 1968 to win the presidency. you've got to have your base on board. we've seen here the morphing of president obama from a jimmy carter to a franklin roosevelt, from a hesitating president to a bold and active president. and let's not forget who is the champion in issuing executive orders, fdr with over 3,000. obama only has 300. >> it is going to be very interesting to see how this new tact plays politically. thank you very much as always. >> stick with us. we're going to have a final word right after this.

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the steps that we took early on to rescue our economy and rebuild it on a new foundation helped make 2014 the strongest year for job growth since the 1990s. >> a nice positive note to end this special edition of "the cycle" as we look at a new year and a new congress. and for now we look forward to "now" with alex wagner. two castros, a kim and james flacco. what could more could america want from a year-end news

conference? it's friday, december 19th and this is "now." the presidential press conference comes amid historic moves on cue baa and a computer hack. the fbi concluded that north korea is responsible for the sony pictures hack that pulled the plug on the movie "the interview." the fbi statement said the sony hack reaffirms that cyberattacks pose one of the greatest threats to the united states. the president said that he understands the concerns be you says that sony was wrong to shelf the film. >> yes, i think they made a mistake. we cannot have a society in which some dictator some place can impose censorship in the united states. >> sony pictures ceo michael linten responded by saying that